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Douglas High shooting: Lawyer for ex-deputy says he’s not a coward

Douglas High shooting: Lawyer for ex-deputy says he’s not a coward

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is flanked by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott during a press conference outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Thursday morning, February 15, 2018, the day after former student Nikolas Cruz returned to the school and is accused of killing 17 people. (Lannis Waters / The Palm Beach Post)

PARKLAND

The Broward County Sheriff’s deputy who failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when the Feb. 14 mass shooting began said he’s not a “coward” and that his actions that day “were appropriate under the circumstances,” according to a statement from the deputy’s attorney.

Scot Peterson, a sheriff’s deputy for more than three decades, resigned from BSO last week after Sheriff Scott Israel suspended him without pay for failing to enter the building where Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 17 student and adult staff members and injure a dozen more people.

Israel said that Peterson waited outside the building for four minutes while Cruz, 19, sprayed gunfire in hallways and inside several classrooms.

In the statement, Peterson, who lives in suburban Boynton Beach, indicates he didn’t enter the building because he thought the shooting was taking place outside.

“Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the seventeen victims on that day. … ,” according to the statement released by attorney Joseph A. DiRuzzo. “However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue.”

In the statement, the former deputy “heard gunshots but believed those gunshots were originating from outside of the buildings on the school campus,” causing him to take a “tactical position”in a corridor.

“BSO trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire, one is to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes with other law enforcement,” that statement said.

Scot Peterson

That’s a contradiction of comments made by Israel on Friday when he said that deputies are instructed to engage active shooters immediately, even if backup help is not available.

“I am devastated,” Israel said during the news conference. “Sick to my stomach. He never went in.”

Israel added that Peterson should have gone inside the building and “killed the killer.”

Israel’s comments about Peterson’s actions are a “gross oversimplification” of the events that took place during the Valentine’s Day attack, the statement reads.

Those points include radio transmissions that indicated a gunshot victim near the school’s football field, confirming Peterson’s belief “that the shooter, or shooters, were outside” and Peterson’s “presence of mind” to have school administrators check closed-circuit video to locate the shooter. Cruz was able to escape with students fleeing the carnage and was not taken into custody for more than an hour after the shootings.

The statement ends by criticizing Israel’s handling of Peterson, admonishing the sheriff because he “jumped to a conclusion” without allowing an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to be completed.

Video and eyewitness testimony will show that Peterson’s response was appropriate and will “exonerate him of any subpar performance,” the statement said.

Peterson has become a target of condemnation nationally.

President Donald Trump has called Peterson a “coward” and said Monday that the former deputy “thought he was probably a brave guy, but he wasn’t a brave guy under pressure. He choked and other people choked.”

Trump went on to say that, unlike Peterson, he would have run into the school building “even if I didn’t have a weapon … ”

According to records obtained from The Palm Beach Post, Peterson had a strong work history at the sheriff’s office. Peterson was named school resource officer of the year in 2015 and had “glowing” performance reviews, the statement said.

Citing state law, BSO said it is forbidden to rebut that statement from Peterson’s attorney because the ex-deputy is the subject of an ongoing internal affairs investigation.